This episode in the wildcard podcast is brought to you by the Wildcard Studio. The Wildcard Studio. Let's take a talk, shall we? How we have a charming little studio tucked away in Jeff's basement.
And as you see, perfectly harmless looking. But it was the Sheen Abecryme. The studio is a junk to a suburban house, also innocent looking. But it's here that several diabolical murders took place.
Hello there, friend. I'd like to ask you a few questions about the Wildcard Studio. Well, look, it's the proprietor of the studio, Mr. Jeff Curtis.
My name is Avogastf and I look a lot like Jeff Curtis. I couldn't imagine anything like that. How can I help you? How long has this studio been here?
And I almost drove right past it. It's been here ever since Motha. Ever since the Motha Man visited and needed a place to stay. Right.
I've never seen a podcast studio that looked like it was hiding from the world before. So this is where it happened, huh? That's right. What happened?
A terrible murder. A murder? I should go tell her. Never mind.
What should you go tell? No one. As I was saying, the murderer crapped down the stairs. Who is this murder?
Well, that would give away the ending, wouldn't it? We shan't do that. Listen, Mr. Duck.
Mr. Who? I beg your pardon. Isn't that your name?
It's Duck. As I was saying. Do you guys know we talk a lot about cocking? And who is this murder?
And the victim can tell me about gifts all time. What was he or she? Reading them. Over Duck.com and Gary.
And who is that old woman in the window up there? As the victim closed his eyes to rest for a moment. The murderer slowly lifted the kitchen knife up off his head. And just as the victim opened his eyes, the murder.
Hey, what are you guys doing in my house? We were taking our friends on a tour of the studio. You know, where it all happened? Everybody out.
Let's check out the fruit cellar next door. Why? You think I'm going free? Don't you?
I do. Now, just a second, friend. I still have some questions. You see, it just doesn't gel.
It isn't gel. And this just isn't gelling. I don't care. Get out.
Now, hold on, friend. Stop calling everybody friend. Nobody here is a friend. Fine.
You don't have to be a cock about it. Geez. It shouldn't be that hard to get a little privacy in your own home. Ah, perfect.
Sunshine, Frankenstein, the shower's really hot. You can't go to the base motel on Universe Studio. La, bad time to kill a lion. More bounded as you.
No man faces the main guy in a row. We just do. La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Why?
Oh, no. Me interrupt my spudium call. What are you doing? Mother and I have come to murder a chair in the shower.
I have the same right to be here as you. You didn't answer a few questions, huh? Well, we'll see. Excuse me.
This time. Bawford is... Three. You can say come to a two-time, but you can't see.
Back through. We focus on the chance to come, please. Now, we all want to stop here in the shower, right? Right.
Then why don't we do this? And to gather. Isn't that a little weird? Was it weird when they did it to Caesar?
Yes. Right. On the count of three. One, two, three.
Three. Aah! Welcome to the wild card podcast. I'm your host, Jared Eaton, and my co-pilots on this journey to wherever are my good friends, Jeff Curtis.
Ew! And they're probably watching him. Well, look him. Let them see what kind of person he is.
He's not even going to swap that fly. He hopes they're watching. They'll see. They'll see.
They'll see and they'll know and they'll say why. Run Blair wouldn't even harm a fly. Find your arm or body. That's great.
That's one of the finest endings to a film. Ever. Good stuff. Lovely smile on face.
I'm not going to flip. I'm not going to do the mother voice. I was going to flip. I was going to flip.
I was like, even that was dead. Take out. It's not as good as now as it was back then. But I had a really rocking mother back then.
Hey, speaking of rocking mothers, I'm Blair and you are a rocking mother. Thanks, man. And we count on your rockineness to let our rockin' decades know what this rockin' podcast is all about. Funny that you should mention rockin' because our podcast is about finding the ever-lusive answer to the questions regarding the kinks.
Were they a 60s band? Were they a 70s band? Were they an 80s band struggling to stay relevant? And how are the righteous brothers who aren't real brothers still together?
And the kinks and oasis are not. Fuck you, Ian Gallagher and Dave Davis. I don't want to play with you no more. What are the answers?
We may never find out, but we will try for you, our deck heads. We won't though. No, I don't care. We don't care beyond this.
I love the kinks. They are what they are. I don't care what they are, but I love what they are. But it is interesting that bands that are named brothers who aren't really brothers stay together and oasis and the kinks do not.
They're righteous, man. They're righteous. They're righteous people. Can you dig your man?
Can you dig your man? I'm a righteous man. There's a stand reference for you. Absolutely.
We do this every week. We go up here and for gosh, this is 89 now. I've asked you guys a favorite question typically. All kinds of them.
So Jeff. Yes, I have the favorite question. All right. What do we mix it up?
What happened? What happened? All right. Well, I've got several here, but we'll see how many of these I feel like doing.
The first one is we've in the past, Jared asked us what superpower we would like to have. That's not my question. My question is what superpower do you currently have? Am I superpower?
Let me illustrate what I'm talking about by giving my answer. I've got two superpowers. The first one is being able to load the dishwasher and make all the dishes fit and still get clean. I've got this dishwasher spatial relationship superpower.
Are you packing like vehicles as well? I'm actually packing when we moved the... That's it. When we moved here and we had we read pods to move stuff.
I packed a hell of that pod and then our second pod when we had movers, I mean they did a fucked up job. I don't even care like you do. I am superpower. That's one of my superpowers.
My other superpower is I give a phenomenal hug. People who... People who... Hug...
Who have hugged me and been hugged by me. I don't mean this actual way. Just people. How commented on how much they...
It's... How good my hug is. But still full of love. Yeah, it's comforting.
Something like a lot of hugs. We give a firm hug. Jeff, both worlds. Yeah.
That's good. So those are my superpowers. So what are your superpowers? Oh, I have extraordinary powers of manipulation.
I have exceptional powers of manipulation. I can... I'm actually going to test. I'm actually going to test.
I'm seeing... I'm talking about this for his ability to look at people he doesn't like when he's an professional sitting and give them the kindest smile to have gentle words all while the rage on the inside is... Yeah. So that's my biggest superpower.
I can handle being places with horrible smells. Oh, yeah. If other people couldn't approach a thing, I'm the one you send in because I can handle the bad smells. I start recognizing how to get a super sniffer.
You have a sniffer that doesn't work. Which is actually great. Yeah. When I worked at Veterans Clinic they'd be like, you got to do this one.
There's a mess in there. It's on the walls and the ceiling. No, I do. I would rather just think about it.
Also, speaking of my nose though, while it doesn't work in that capacity, all of these smelling ability has gone to the nostril flaring ability. Oh, yeah. It's amazing. It's a very amazing...
It's about as fast as you've ever seen. Also, the loudest jaw click of all time. Yeah, that's so bizarre. That's literally...
You can fight evil. Yeah. The power of that. I also have the ability to make people feel the emotions that I'm feeling.
Oh, you're in that. It's horrible. Yeah. I'm pretty crazy.
You can bring it down. I can do both. You walk in and that room's good. If I'm having a bad day it brings a lot of tension to those around me.
Alright. So my second favorite question is, if you were a menu item, if a menu item was made for you at a restaurant, what would it be and what would they call it? Also, if something was named after us. Yes.
Not if we were a... We're talking about cannibalism. We're talking about made in your honor named after you. If you wish.
Okay. Wow, that's a good question. Mine would be really bland or spicy. Somehow bland and spicy.
Blanned and spicy. It would be a little salty. It would not be a sauce. No, there would be no sauce.
It would be like a fish preparation. Like a not super flavorful fish that has cajun seasoning attached to it. Like, um... What, grouper?
Perhaps. I don't know. What's a bland fish? Something but herring.
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I think I'll share it.
Yeah, that's nice. I don't know. I think I'll be covered in cheese. Probably.
Something you probably don't really want to eat. No, you shouldn't. But it's so appealing in this preparation. Yeah.
Yeah, I agree with that. I think I'm probably, you know, a little bit of corn beef. Okay. Probably a lot of corn beef.
Yeah, it's fermented. Yeah, it's fermented. Yeah, it's bacon somewhere around it. Yeah.
Sticking on it. Yeah, bacon is poking out of it. I don't know what... And it's called the treasure.
The treasure. It's called the treasure. It's a stack of corn beef. And then just cheese dumped on it.
And poutine. There's poutine on the side as well. I don't think the combination of the fries and the bacon is like your hair. Right.
So these served as your face. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
That would be it. With the bacon mustache. Okay. Well, mine would obviously have to be a pizza.
Okay. And it would probably be sausage, pepperoni, and that... And my mozzarella, provolone, cheese, you know, bland and wicks and some pizza slices. But not provolone.
Not provolone. Not provolone. That's good. So I don't know.
It'd probably be called the Jeff special. Something lame. Something lame. Okay.
Yeah. Okay. That was awesome. That was fun.
That was the first one. Just one of mine. That was awesome. Yeah.
Yeah. All right. Let's see. Our final favorite question.
We have meatballs on pizza. That's interesting. It's good. I like meatballs.
I like... I love bowls. I love bowls. Plain with my hand.
Oh, sweetie. I'll say his head. My final favorite question is... If you were to write in autobiography, what would you call it?
Oh, I do this all the time. Everything is cancer. That's what I was going to call my book. Every pain you have is cancer.
So your book about you is everything is cancer. Everything is cancer. You get a headache, it's a brain tumor. You never go for the most simple explanation.
It's always my stomach hurts, it's probably cancer. I can't breathe, it's probably cancer. I smoke, so it's probably cancer. Might be called someone else's story.
Wow. Would it just be you deflecting stories about yourself? And then other people and things that happened around me. Yeah, every chapter would start.
I have some friends. Yeah, so I was saying that one time. When I went to Colorado, my friends. Mine would be called anonymous, anonymous.
Because nobody knows who the fuck I am. Is it Ron Blair? The story of Jeff Blair. Right, anonymous by anonymous.
I know my name on it. I love it. It's an autobiography. I love it.
Who is this about? I don't know. Some guy, some guy. Some guy.
It's an anonymous. Yeah. Is it an anonymous? It is an anonymous.
It is an anonymous. And I'm excited to get started. You guys do not know what the topic is. I have an idea.
No clue. No. So question number one. Great guys.
As we lead into this topic. What is our most talked about topic? Nazis. Nazis comes up a lot.
Poor. Aborigines. Aborigines people. Aboriginals.
What you phrase that? Sciencey things. Sciencey things. I can talk about sciencey things.
I talk about diseases. I talk about diseases. I talk about diseases. The places where diseases happened.
It would be hard not to argue that Nazis are one of the ones we've come back to the most. Yeah. Other than like maybe science werewolves initially. Where was there?
Sure. Horr of general. I mean, let me rephrase the question. Yeah.
Because we mess around in the dark a lot. What topic have we talked about talking about the most? Oh, wait. I know this one.
Do you? Nope. So that question might make more sense in context. OK.
Question number three. We're going to left turn here. OK. What would you be called by if you went by your first two initials in your last name?
RA. Blair. What? First two initials and your last name.
Oh, my goodness. So for JT. OK. J.S.
OK. J.S. Curtin. J.S.
Curtin. J.S. Curtin. J.S.
Curtin. J.S. Curtin. J.S.
Curtin. J.S. Curtin. Yes.
Yes. Question number four. Yes. The FBI calls this case the only unsolved skyjacking of all time.
Oh, it's Diddy Cooper. So then we'll talk to you about the podcast. It's about Samanella. All right.
What does it do to you? Yeah. On Thanksgiving Eve, November 24, 1971. Good year.
A middle-aged man carrying a black briefcase approached the flight counter of Northwest Orient Airlines. Let me stop here right there. I would encourage the deckheads to follow along on their computer so they can look up pictures of DB Cooper. Yeah.
Everywhere. There's a amount of information I could find about this. I mentioned. I mentioned now the FBI has released their documents.
Yeah. You can go to the FBI website and there are 34 different sections you can click on. Right. So these are multiple pages of reports of newspaper clippings of pictures, people, the FBI now owns it.
He's not alive. Now, I will be honest with you, a lot of this report comes from Wikipedia, even though I've gone to all of their references and looked at my stuff, they just word things well, and it works as well. Sure, and like you said, there's a massive amount of paper. Yeah, and so I followed up on pretty much everything, but I did use a lot of wiki stuff to get around here.
So, flight counter Northwest Orient Airlines at Portland International Airport, the Orient. Yeah, identified himself as Dan Cooper, and he was cash to purchase a one-way ticket on flight 305, a 30 minute trip north to Seattle. So yeah, we'll go to the organ to see a washing. No, wet flight.
He's very charming. We'll get to that. Yeah, we'll get that. So Cooper, Dan, Dan Cooper, Dan Cooper, board of the aircraft, a Boeing 727-100 FAA registration in 467 US.
The amount of information we have is not even a little bit. Of course. But I just need to illustrate how many details are about this. Tumsum.
Tumsum, when he gets on the flight, this isn't it. And yet, we know the exact registration of the plane, but we don't know where he's at. It's all three of the four that 18 C's was off reported. Yeah.
One account is 18 E, one account is 15 D. Somewhere in this plane is on the plane. Right. There's a man.
He's got glasses and drinking. It's towards the rear of the passenger cab. We know that. He's listening right because you can.
In the 70s, sir. In order to bourbon and soda. Yeah. Fellow passengers described him as a man in mid 40s between 5'10 and 60 tall.
Okay. You are a black lightweight raincoat, loafers, a dark suit, a neatly pressed white colored shirt, a black clip on tie, and a mother of pearl type in. On his clip on tie. That's fun.
That's fun. Clip on tie. I worked on it. I was like five years old.
Yeah, sure. I still might still have mine. Really? Washington D.C.
going to Seattle. Stopped in the atlas, great follows Missoulas, Spokane, and now Portland. It was approximately one third full when it left Portland on schedule at 2.50 pm Pacific standard time. Now they should have known something was up.
2.50 pm. I always thought it was at night. It's just a little dark. Yeah.
You want to point out you should have known something was up because the plane left on time. If you've ever been a plane. Something must be wrong. Ever been a plane.
No. Shortly after takeoff, Cooper handed a note to Florence Sheffner. The flight attendant situated nearest to him in a jumpsy attached to the aft stair door. He jumps he is wind like so many works the airlines can just ride the plane.
They can just go up there and sit on the plane and go with him and aft just means towards the rear. Right. Florence Sheffner was 23. She was cute and perky.
The sexy stewardess, if you will. No, I will. Working on planes, she approached by so many men that she'd taken to wearing a wig onboard to disguise her. Wow.
She dropped the men's note in her purse thinking just another guy hitting on me. Yeah. But the man was insistent. Miss, you'd better look at that note.
I have a bomb. I love how cool D. D.B. Cooper always came off.
She looked at the man's eyes and saw it once that he was serious. She read in the note. It was printed in felt pin, all capital letters elegantly formed. Now here's a reporting of what the note says it.
Apparently reportedly says I have a bomb in my briefcase. I want you to sit beside me. I was one account. Other accounts I've seen they say they don't know what the note said because he took it back.
Oh, okay. I was wondering. Keep it. She did not get to keep it.
He requested it back towards the end of their encounter. That makes sense. They don't have a hand right. She gives what she might remember saying.
But as I was talking about four memories kind of fallible. Of course. She did this request that she sat next to him. Cooper opened the briefcase because she requested and she was able to see eight red cylinders four on top of four attached to wires coated with red insulation and a large cylindrical battery.
She witnessed the bomb. After closing the briefcase. What she thought was a bomb. We have no reason to go to that one.
If you didn't, most of you don't have a bomb. You don't get very good looks at it. He was likely up here. It is.
After closing the briefcase, he stated his demands. $200,000 in negotiable American currents. That's the phrasing on that. That's a full American currency.
We should have about 1.2 million today. That's about that one at this time. Four parachutes, two primary and two reserve. They fuel trucks standing by and Seattle to refuel the aircraft upon arrival.
No funny stuff or I'll do the job. He let her get up to take his demands to the captain. When she got back, the man was wearing dark sunglasses. Question five.
Have you guys spent any time on airplanes? I've only written one once. American Airlines from here to Chicago. I've spent a lot of time on airplanes.
Yeah, you fly a lot. What are your thoughts on airplanes? It was fine. It was exciting the first few times now.
It's like being crammed into a seat. Yeah. Buzz or anything else. Yeah, the point was it was exciting.
They didn't fly back there. They don't feed you anymore. They get chips. I didn't fly.
I was on a plane. I get so nauseated by planes. So dis on it. I like driving though.
I like driving. I like driving. I like driving. I like driving.
I like driving. I like driving. I like taking off in a plane. There's an excitement to it that I enjoy.
I've only done it once. I've only done it once. I've not seen the plane. That excitement wears off.
I'm sure it does. I've talked a lot about the kid. But for me it's compared to being on a train or a bus. Any sort of commercial vehicle.
I hate it. Man, I've read the bus to Chicago. Up there back. That's 6 plus.
Fuck, it's a nightmare. It's a goddamn nightmare. It's a 10 hour bus drive. Which is awful.
I just want to get fun. And the bus is going through the fields of Indiana. Where there's nothing really to look at. Yeah, and you don't want the people to talk to you.
It was awful. Do you know anyone who's afraid of flying? My mom is just terrified. My mom gets sick but she's afraid of flying.
She doesn't like heights, she doesn't like being a burns on a fly unless there's no other option. No kid. Decads, let us know your thoughts on flying. I've already afraid of this kind of situation.
It's something I want to play. Again, I'm just gonna crash. No, I'm still learning money. I'm try to get rid of it.
You're fine. Okay. It's good. So that's your exception.
Right, and I got a way over in 71 for oh no no you weren't born yet in 71 But I was born here remember actually died when he went out of the plane and you're a drinkarnated And so maybe it was maybe it was you know maybe it was I hate the thought that he died He comes across as so charming before the whole thing and I appreciate it's so educated about so many things Yeah, he's walking back to that later. Yeah, sorry. I can jump Right, let's let's roll with it. Let's go Florence Shaftor's mind was reeling.
She's one of the guys She imagine her parents back at Arkansas watching the evening news Right, imagine the plane exploding she imagined the man taking her by the heart of the wrist and raping her right there All these things were going through her mind. I think she's gone to 23 She took deep breaths inhale like so repeat surprisingly the man was able to calm her down Yeah, he was not a so-called skypilot which she read about the paper is oral heart and criminal right he was not political dissident We wish to reroute the plane to Cuba like maybe the hijackers then but so she left to go talk to the pilot because he was able to calm her down Pilot William Scott contacted Seattle Tacoma Airport traffic control which in turn informed local and federal authorities the 36 other passengers were given false information Information that their arrival in Seattle would be delayed because of a minor mechanical difficulty Northwest Orient's president Donald Nairap Yeah, I was payment of the ransom and ordered all employees to cooperate fully with the hijackers demands Do you realize that backwards his name is porn? Skyron with a with a lie great. No the other guy foreign porn knows scour up your eyes.
There's something up with that Yeah, okay, only you with these fellow people's names back Well, I felt like there was an an anagram there that I needed to solve yeah He's solved it. Well I had to do with poor Okay The Are supposed to come to the command the aircraft circle put it sound for approximately two hours This was a long time. Yeah, it was a short flight But he had a lot to get together. Oh, yeah, yeah For to allow Seattle police on the FBI sufficient time to assemble Cooper's parachutes and ransom money and to mobilize emergency personnel Right Well flow Florence flow Recall that Cooper appeared familiar with the local terrain at one point your mark looks like a coma down there But not just what to look like you know what looks like Right, he also correctly mentioned that McCord Air Force Base was only a 20 minute drive at that time from Seattle to come airport So he knows where the air force bases to yeah, chef.
You're describing That flow described him is calm up polite and well-spoken not at all consistent with the stereotypes enraged harden criminal For the take me to America political dissidence. This is not a desperate man No popular associate with air piracy at the time. Yeah, Tina mucklow I'm sorry sweetheart. I apologize on your parents.
Oh Oh mucklow. I hope she's changed it to just muck Yeah, or what I got married well, I don't know a poor thing with that last name I don't think exactly He wasn't nervous she told investigators he seemed rather nice. He was never cruel or nasty He was thoughtful and calm the whole time Ordered a second bourbon water. Yeah paid his drink tab Attempted to give flow to change right?
He was trying to tip. It's like Frank Sinatra as a Airjagger even offered to request meals for the flight crew during the stop I would do the same thing though. I'd like to be like yeah, it's on the government Yeah, whatever you want yeah, yeah FBI agents assembled the ransom money from several Seattle area banks ten thousand dollars on mark 20 dollar bills Most with serial numbers begin with letter L indicating issuance by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and most of the 1963 a or 1969 series. How do we know this they made a microfilm photograph each bill no Oh my god, can you imagine though doing that kind of work in the in the pre-internet age or the pre-Microsoft age?
Remember 1970. Yeah, you're doing it all my hand over punch cards. If you have computers, it's very rudimentary programming God and you you log all those so that later on if you try to spend the money they'll be able to trace it Yeah, that's exactly the point is they're making all this so that whenever it shows up somewhere. We know it's money Right this is the guy Cooper rejected the military issue parachutes offered by the corner force personnel instead demanding civilian parachutes with manually operated records Which are harder to use Seattle police obtained them from a local skydiving school So he was very specific about what he wanted Yeah, and fun Theories and one of my really like five 24 p.m.
Now. So now it is almost even yeah In form that his demands had been met at five three nine the aircraft landed at Seattle Tacoma Airport It was more than an hour after sunset and Cooper instructed Scott to taxi the jet to an isolated brightly lit section of the apron No, and close each window shade in the cabin to their snack right of course North West Orient Seattle operations manager Al Lee Approaches the aircraft in street clothes to avoid the possibility that Cooper Mike Masake is airline uniform for that of a police officer Yeah, smart he delivered the cash filled knapsack and parachutes to fly to muckalo right here the rear stairs once the delivery was completed Cooper ordered all passengers Flow the flight that you can give the note and senior life in an al's hand talk and got to get makes it come back to leave the plane Right, right. Tina's or the flow that Tina's taking around right muck is still there, but the pilot the pilot's Okay, they're in refueling Cooper outlined his flight plan to the cockpit crew the ones who remain right he had some rather specific instructions I did not say that okay. Okay.
No My head there's there's a cock in what you said There's a lot of talk around this is how specific these instructions are he gives a black group Southeast courts towards Mexico City right at the minimum airspeed possible without selling the aircraft and at that time this would have been a standard Uh, let's go down to Mexico. Well That a hijacker would say but not usually this far. He wants him to go approximately 100 knots, which is 115 miles per hour Yeah, as slow as you can give that song your car He knew that they got that right at a maximum 10,000 foot altitude He further specified that the landing gear remained deployed in the takeoff landing position the wing flaps be lowered 15 degrees And the cabin remain unpressurized The man knows what he's doing. Yeah, co-pilot William radusac informed Cooper that the aircraft's range was limited to approximately 1,000 miles Under the specified flight configuration which meant that a second refueling would be necessary to enter Mexico City Yeah, no more Mexico.
So he's like listen, we're gonna have to refuel again if you want to get to Mexico right Cooper and the crew discussed options Agreed on rain on Nevada as he refueling stuff. I love that the crew's like, okay, we can help you And staircase extended Cooper directed the pilot to take off so the door the plane is still open right Northwest home office objected on ground that it was unsafe to take off with the aft staircase deployed Cooper counted it was indeed safe, but he would not argue the point and he would lower it once they were airborne He closed the plane and say fine, but I got it I'm in control people. Yeah And FEA official requested a face-to-face meeting with Cooper aboard the aircraft which was denied Yeah, no, no the refueling process was delayed because of a vapor lock in the fuel takers truck pumping mechanism Man, you better get that fuel pumped and Cooper became suspicious. Yeah, he allowed a replacement tanker truck to continue the refueling and a third after the second Rid drive all right.
He's a patient guy And approximately 740 pm the Boeing 727 took off with only five people on board and now it's well into the night Well, well into the evening. It's dark. Yeah, so Cooper's on board. Oh, Danny boy Cooper.
Yep. Flow the pilots got no no flow left Flight flight attendant mucklow. Sure. Co pilot Rata's act and flight engineer a T Anderson.
Oh good. He has a normal name good H e Anderson he Anderson so fight the flight takes off. Yeah, we're heading out arena into the wild blue yonder Down to Reno. Oh, you can gamble, but it's not as good as I Did I Was Jared and I during that show so here's our planes in the air.
No, do you think the the feds are just gonna let me go? Of course, so what are they gonna do? It's only two hundred thousand dollars 106 fighter aircraft were scrambled from the quarter four space and follow behind the airliner one above it and one below out of Cooper's view a Lockheed T33 trainer diverted from an unrelated international garnish and also shadow shadow the 724 Fuel and turning back to the Oregon California state line. Okay.
Well, we got fighter jets trailing this plane Yeah ready to go if he's gonna try to skate we're gonna see it right right after takeoff Cooper told mucklow to join the rest of the crew in The cockpit and remain there with the door closed. Yeah as she complied mucklow observed Cooper tying something around his waist At approximately eight o'clock p.m. A warning light flashed in the cockpit indicating that the rear stairwell apparatus had been activated The crews offer of assistance via the air calm intercom was currently refused so he said no. Yeah The crew soon noticed a subjective change of air pressure indicating that the after door was open It's only been 20 minutes and take off right because it was seven four and they took off It's about eight o'clock now at approximately 813 p.m.
The aircraft's tail sections to save a sudden upward movement significant enough to require trimming trimming to bring it playing back to level flight So a 13 is a little something on there a little about right approximately 10 15 p.m The aircraft's aft airster airster was distilled deployed when the Scott and Rata Zag land of the 727 at Reno Airport Yeah, FBI agents state troopers sheriff's deputies and reo police surrounded the jet as it did not yet The term with certainty that Cooper was no longer over right but an arm search quickly confirmed his absence now It was it not a stormy night cloudy night. I was raining raining. Yes Yeah, and the wind was insane so the the overall there were five planes in total that have been trailing the hijacked plane Not a single one of them were at least on jump and none of them could put location We could well visibility would have been horrible that night, but the planes are right there. Yeah, yeah No, that's true But under that kind of cover at that kind of speed if they're depending on when you know at what altitude they're traveling in relation to it They could certainly miss somebody slipping out that And they did it because that's it.
That's what happened with you. Yeah, and that's the last we know of He could rare quotes. That's the last we know for certain of this person. We don't know what happened to him after that Yeah, FBI agents, you know scoured the plane.
They recovered 66 unidentified latent fingerprints aboard the airliner Now mind you at this point, they're in Reno. Oh, yeah, the FBI is a Reno. He jumped shortly after Tacoma was opened Right away, but it's in right he jumped nobody can say no I never California. Yeah, so the idea is I don't know organs pretty That's your woodsy and the movie without paddle is based on Morgan most of the assumption is because that's when the door open Yeah, I think you would wait it because they can figure out the timing and where he may have landed and all that if you Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll then Exciting so when they're staring to find those and they find the fingerprints They also found Cooper's clip on time.
Yeah is tight lip and two of the four parishes right one of which had an opened and two of the suspension lines I've been cut from its canopy authorities interview. So essentially they're supposing that he cut these cords to secure himself Okay, briefcase with him Signing himself into the aperati authorities interviewed eyewitnesses in Portland, Seattle, Reno All those who personally interacted with Cooper a series of composite sketches were developed local police and FBI agents immediately began questioning possible suspects Reportedly considering more than 800 All the two dozen were limited from the investigation now What is the name of this man who is on the point? What do you give his name as? Denver what do people know this case as?
Dv. Denver and Oregon man Dv. Cooper who had a minor police record was one of the first persons of interest in the case Well, he was contacted by Portland police on the off chance that the hijacker uses real name or the same alias in the previous crime Right. He was quickly ruled out as a suspect Yeah, why would he use his real name if he's paying cash and there's no way but a local reporter named James Long rushing to meet an imminent Deadline confused the eliminated suspects name with the pseudonym used by the hijacker And there's kind of conflicting reports on who reported after him Yeah, I could have been Clyde Jabin of United Press International The accounts or Joe Frazier the associate press republished this error Numerous other media sources.
Yeah, they're for the moniker DB Cooper became large in the club This guy never said he could so be be Cooper comes from nowhere They But his name was a one reporter because it was something I said so be Cooper stuck So nobody think I would have started out with places where people do you like skydiving and Oh, there are suspects I believe I Interesting reasons why they were proposed. There's one though that I think sticks out I'm like this might be obvious one. There are a lot of if you look at accounts Yeah, they proposed this as this person is there for this account So they're all been proposed by various accounts with some TV or not. Yeah a precise search area was difficult to define as even small differences in the estimates of the aircraft speed The environmental conditions along the fly path which very significantly by location altitude But they changed his projected landing point considerably an important variable was the length of time he remained in freefall before pulling his record Yeah, if indeed he succeeded opening perish at all none of the Air Force pilots ever saw anything Exeter the airliner other visually on radar nor the ever see a parachute open But at night as you mentioned earlier extremely limited visibility and cloud cover obscuring any ground line below and every word human Cloud almost entirely black clove right could easily non undetected.
Yeah, the T-30 pots never made even visual contact with the seven All so this T-30 trailer came out early didn't even actually see the seven point seven. Yeah, cuz how the visibility was Then what they did after this was an experimental recreation Scott pilot the aircraft again using this hijacking in the same flight configuration FBI agents pushing a 200-pound sled out of the open air Stair that we were air-sare able to reproduce the upward motion of the tail section described on the flight at 813 PM So that's kind of when they think he must have jumped because by pushing this way out the back He kind of gave a little do right though coming off the very other point. Yeah, but the wind speeds are gonna be very there Give us something an idea right based on this experiment It was included at 13 PM was the most likely jump time at that moment The aircraft was passing through heavy rainstorm over the Lewis River in southwestern Washington Okay, so not into Oregon yet. Yeah, initial calculations placed Cooper's landing zone within an area on the southern most outreach of Mount St Helens a few miles southeast of Ariel, Washington near Lake Merwin an artificial lake formed by a dam on the Lewis River Okay, search efforts focused on Clark and Calitz counties right Calitz counties encompassing the terrain immediately south and north respectively of the Lewis River in southwest Washington FBI agents and sheriff's deputies from those counties search large areas of the mountainous wilderness on foot and by helicopter They even did door to door searches of four houses These various farmhouses were carried out.
They're like are you harboring your kriddle? Are you nursing? Anything right you can see anything. Yeah, the other search parties ran patrol boats patrol boats along Lake Merwin and Yale Lake the reservoir In the east of us nice no trace of Cooper.
There were any of the equipment for zoom out there with them were found I didn't see no DB in this search nothing was found at all I didn't see nothing the FBI also coordinated aerial search using fixed wing aircraft and helicopters from the Oregon Army National Guard along the entire Flight path known as Victor 23 and standard aviation Right, but I'm back to 23 most Cooper there's a Seattle all the way to Reno Scowerings around this time see that I could be noted although numerous broken tree tops and several pieces of plastic Other objects were someone person can be recited investigated nothing relevant to the hijack from the sound after the first hour How do you how do you find this guy? Yeah, the longer time has passed the more like I just disappeared into the wind He could also just died. I mean, that's the There's never any else you guys don't even know yet. I'm a lot of creams to be died.
Yeah, I just reject There's a reason kind of my brain lights hard to accept that but we'll come back in a little later. Let's continue on the search here Please we're like a baby Cooper. I know we're nothing if not the light shortly after the spring fall in early 1970s remember this was right So teams of FBI agents aided by some 200 army soldiers from Fort Lewis Air Force personnel national guardmen and civilian volunteers conduct conducted another thorough ground search of Clark and Calist House for 18 days in March and then an additional 18 days of April Electronic explorations company in Marine salvage firm uses a submarine to search the 200 foot deaths of late merman. That makes sense They're spending more money searching for this guy more than $200,000 $200,000 Spend some money they are gonna do that but you have to give the impression that no one else gets away with us right because You know this guy you know when we catch him other people know we're going to catch you right this is mostly I would say that's hurt.
Yeah, I would say so because it seems like a You're wasting a lot of money here's something interesting here's something interesting to local women during this search Actually stumbled across a skeleton in an abandoned structure in Clark County But it's only been like six months. It was later identified as there means of a female teenager who'd been adopted in murders I wish before what the father something good actually did come from the search No, that's great. I couldn't find any follow-ups on this whether like the crime was solved But at least the family and this is around Seattle in 71. This is the end of South Washington close to the Washington, Oregon border There yeah, it was Jerry Bruno.
So no Ultimately the search operation arguably the most extensive and intensive in the US history uncovered no significant material evidence related to the hijacking No, nothing was this man covered his tracks. So That's a lot of territory you're dropping 1971 was undeveloped forest land or you know If a point went down into that force it'd be hard to find The track and exact about tracking me out so a month after the hijacking the FBI distribute list of the ransons serial numbers The financial institutions like Jeff is saying we're gonna track this money financial institutions casinos racetracks and other businesses that routinely conducted significant cash transactions and To other law enforcement agencies all around the world. Here's what we looking for. Yeah, Northwest Orient offered a reward of 15% of the recovered money To an excellent $25,000 in early 1972 US Attorney General John and Mitchell released the serial numbers to the general public So even they would have Gary have access to that and it may have been Jerry Bruno's because he killed women in Oregon Okay, in 1972, but I love this is nothing to do with it So fun two men use counterfeit twenty dollar bills printed with Cooper serial number Swindle $30,000 for my news With a man they falsely clean with I know that's fantastic They used fake money and a fake person to 30,000 dollars from the news report All right in early 1973 now It's a couple years later with the ransom I'm still missing the Oregon Journal republished the serial numbers and offered $1,000 to the first person to turn in a ransom bill to the News report or any FBI field office Oregon the Oregon Journal is now offering money if you don't have an end in Seattle the post-intelligence are made a similar offer with a $5,000 reward The offers remain in effect until Thanksgiving 1974 and though there were several near matches no genuine bills were found 1975 Northwest Orleans insurer global indemnity corporation or company Yeah, complied with order from Minnesota Supreme Court and paid the airline to one hundred and eighty thousand dollar claim on the right So money wait that so was the airline that gave the money the airline?
Yeah, no for the president that company's only found the money Oh, I can't think of a government Oh, yeah, yeah So they got their money back in most of them no September 20 grand which is subsequent analyses indicated that the original landing so that's not accurate Scott who is flying the aircraft manually because The Cooper speed and I'll see demands later determined that his flight path was significantly farther east but initially assumed Additional data from a variety of sources in particular continental airlines pilot Tom Boham who was flying four minutes behind flight Three or five indicated that the wind direction back to the drop zone calculations had been wrong possibly by as much as any degrees Well, even a one or two degree change with impact of the landing spot right this and other supplemental data suggested that the actual drop zone Was probably south southeast of the original estimate in the drainage area of the Washugo River But again, we're four years later now, right? Sir, yeah, I didn't even get up to 400 person search. Okay, the last time yeah well at this point. What are you gonna find?
Yeah, now What are they gonna find nothing but I'll be right as well on July 8th 2016 the FBI now So it was suspending active investigation of the Cooper case Okay, not any of its investigate resources and empower on issues of higher and more urgent priority Yeah, local field offices will continue to accept any legitimate evidence related specifically to the parachutes or the ransom money that may I'm there it merged in the future the 60 volume case file Commodular with the 45 year course of the investigation would reserve for historical purposes at FBI headquarters in Washington DC On the FBI website is I mentioned earlier. There's more than a 34 part packet full of evidence gather of the years all the evidence is open to the politics of you want to try to solve the DB Cooper case all of their evidence is out there for you look at I think I just I look over those documents and there were so many new separate things with sketches interviewed witnesses. It's incredibly detailed work The official description physical script of Cooper has remained unchanged and is considered reliable man of average height I don't think you've looked at the same way. I mean is what I'm saying.
I was dead now Specifically the I was testimony to not change they were him vividly as well as initially flight attendants Shaffner flow and Tina mucklow most of them were interviewed on the same night in separate cities because remember I go off in Seattle whereas mucklow in all the arena right ago They were the same items gave nearly identical script 5 foot 10 to 5 foot 11 inches tall 100 70 to 108 pounds mid 40s with close set piercing brown eyes and dark tan skin Yeah, and sunglasses from time to time and that is what they had Only four pieces of evidence to definite and to potential links to the cooper have turned up from 1978 to 2017 What do we got? Okay in 1978 a placard printed with instructions for lowering the after rear stairs I'm a 727 was found by a deer hunter near a logging road about 13 miles east of Castle Rock Washington No, what was this thing? Well north of Lake Merwin, but within flight 305 is basic flight time So again, it's a 727. This is the air time where he was on if the instructions on how to lower the rear stairs Okay, well, you know, that makes sense He did that and he knew about this so he obviously does a research right so a little card essentially So I think how to do that was found seven years later, but in about within their flight up potentially within their flight up Yeah, two years later.
This is probably the most compelling evidence in most fun to talk about yeah, February 1980 So still nine years after the fact I have a five nine hundred eight year old Ryan Ingram Ryan was vacationing with his family on the Columbia River And he beat front on either as the Tina or ten bar Okay, about nine miles downstream from Vancouver, Washington and 20 miles south west of Ariel the original search area Yeah, the child uncovered three packets of the ransom cash Oh, I raked the sandy riverbank to build a camp on the bank and uncovers The one floated to the bank or we'll get into what could have happened the bills were significantly disintegrated But still bundled in the rubber bands FBI technicians confirmed that the money was indeed a portion of the ransom Here's what was it? Yeah, two packets of one hundred twenty other bills each And a third packet that had ninety twenty Oh the kid took ten bucks. No, we didn't ten twenty The kid took some money all arranged in the same order as when they were given the Cooper. Yeah.
Oh wait No, so essentially this money has not been touched since we're given him. He was done with it wasn't spent put back together Right since I touched all right in 1986 six years later after protracted negotiations the recovered bills were divided equally between Ingram The boy yeah, and northwest audience insurer and the FBI retained 14 examples of it How much was that altogether how much money was found? Yeah 290 bills times $25,800. Okay, so not not really a It's a loseable amount if you're DB It's not a huge bill so now this is eight years later So in your 16 years old yeah, and he's getting back half of what he found so about 145 of the bills And when you're kid, that's good.
Yeah, he sold 15 of the bills at auction in 2008 So as an adult 20 other bills as an adult who has ruined his life So he's he sold $300 how much did he for how much for 15 bills? $37,000 of course he sold $300 for $37,000 I know that being like yeah, this is a money DB Cooper soul. That's like that's a neat item He had a hundred and forty five twenty dollar bills about twenty nine hundred dollars ish. Yeah, give or take I'm sure I'm not quite on there, but he was sold 300 of it.
So he still got that more when he needs another cash Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he'll date roll that back to this day None of the nine thousand seven hundred ten remaining bills have turned up anywhere in the world Which means that they haven't been spent well, yeah I mean how you launder that though. How you launder that kind of well if they laundered it and someone else like you know gave Them this is what this money they could have been out of right? It would turn up sometimes somewhere I mean he could have the bundles of cash could have come out of his stuff when he was parachuting right? It could have come loose if he crashed in a tree or landed someplace I would think you know here's the thing that I keep think cuz I grew up in the in a wilderness area, right?
You know if you get lost You can get lost and never find your way out. Yeah for a die if you're parachuting into an into the middle of a The wilderness Even if you survive Did he have food did he have survival here with him? You know he planned everything so well. Yeah, but he had no control over where he actually led He had control over where he jumped right that he had no control over where he actually landed and he's parachuting in a storm Could he have if he had survived could he have spent this money in a different country where it would not be recirculated to the Americas Potentially but remember they said for lawnmower things just threw them as well, right?